Fotoreproductie van De opstand van de hel tegen de hemel door Antoine Wiertz before 1868

This is a photograph of Antoine Wiertz’s painting, "The Repression of Hell Against Heaven," made by Edmond Fierlants in 19th-century Belgium. It shows a painter's interpretation of a religious subject which is then further mediated through the relatively new technology of photography. The original painting would have been displayed in the studio of the painter Wiertz, who was granted a studio by the Belgian state, the building of which is now the Wiertz Museum. Wiertz had the goal to popularize his art in Belgium. In addition to making paintings that were large and spectacular, he also experimented with new techniques, such as matte painting. Photography was another technology that Wiertz embraced. Here, the photograph flattens the painting, rendering it in monochrome. It creates a new version of it, and a new way to access it. This photographic copy also has an important role to play in the history and institutionalization of art. Art historians rely on such images to study paintings, and we may use these images to ask new questions about the cultural and social functions of art.